


Summer evening

by TaillessGiraffe



Category: Grand Theft Auto V
Genre: Boring stuff, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Seriously just original characters here, Snippet for 'Running on Fumes', teenagers being teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 08:36:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3168455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaillessGiraffe/pseuds/TaillessGiraffe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She tries so hard, every day, to understand this savage girl, this little witch with needles in her tongue and flames in her eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer evening

**Author's Note:**

> To compensate for having deleted the last chapters and leaving the people following it on a bit of a hiatus until I rewrite all that stuff, here's some Sam and Ly I wrote a while ago, doing nothing at all and talking a lot. I know, I am amazing!

‘I like this one’.

‘Huh?’

‘This one right here, the one with the spiky hair’ she says, hanging the drawing bloc right in front of the other girl’s face, ‘He looks like he means shit’.

The girl pushes it back, looking over her shoulder. ‘Sam, are you even watching the movie?’

The brunette grunts and flips another page from the bloc. ‘Yeeeees’.

‘No, you’re not’.

‘Yes, I aaaam…’

‘Oh yeah? What just happened?’

Sam groans and stretches out, holding the bloc at arm’s length and sliding down the wall until her whole body is laying down on the bed, some of the many stuffed animals taking over it falling to the ground.

‘He juuuust- _eerh_ , sang, again, about something to do with Christmas- annnnd now those kids, things, are up to something’ she says, resting the bloc on her cheek and lazily pointing at the screen with an amused look, ‘Something _naughty_ ’.

The obviously fake redhead turns back at the TV with a frustrated sigh. ‘Look, if you don’t want to watch it, just say it’

She snorts. ‘But I _told you_ , as soon as they started singing in the beginning, I told you, I just _can’t_ stand musicals’ she replies, ‘In fact, I believe my exact words were: _Holy fuck, Ly, not another musical, **please**. _ I actually _begged_ , Ly’.

Her friend crosses her arms and leans back against the bed with a pout. ‘Well, you could at least _try_ ’ she complains ‘This is a really good movie, Sam, a _legend_ , even, in its genre’ she explains with that silly yet damnably endearing enthusiasm that she always shows about her faves, and then casually remarks, ‘Also, it has gross monsters in it. I honestly thought you would like that’.

‘I like gross monsters’ the brunette affirms, distractedly looking at Ly’s doodles, ‘Gross monsters that _sing_ , though, not so much’.   

‘Ugh, _fine_ ’ Ly surrenders, crawling on all four towards the TV and turning off the video player.

‘Come on, you can keep watching it!’ Sam protests with a frown.

‘I’ve seen it a thousand times before, Sam’ she replies, clumsily standing up and pulling her shirt back down to cover her belly, ‘I just wanted to watch it with you’.

Sam stares at her with a look of disbelief and for a moment looks like she’s about to call her out on her nonsense or something along those lines, again. But then she rolls her eyes and tilts her head with a tired expression, using her elbows to push herself up into a sitting position and putting the bloc away.

‘Okay, jesus, okay’ she mumbles, pointing at the TV with a sneer, ‘Play it again, I’ll watch it, you corny asshole’.

‘I’m not forcing you to watch it’ she laughs drily, picking up the empty bags of chips from the floor.

‘Don’t make me ask twice’ she whines, dropping her shoulders.

‘Sam, no, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it’ the chubby girl insists, making a ball with all the empty bags and throwing it into her trash can, ‘It’s okay, we can do something else’.

‘Shit, no, now I feel bad’ she retorts, ‘We’re not doing anything else until we watch that stupid movie’.

Ly laughs harder this time, raising her eyebrows. ‘You just called it stupid, Sam! We are not watching it, okay? It’s fine!’

‘Play iiiiiit…’ she starts to persuade her, dragging the sound.

‘Noooo…’

‘Plaaaaaaaay it, Lyyyy…’ she drawls out again, and then whispers, ’Don’t be a fucknuuuut…’

‘Nope’.

‘Lyyyy, plaaaaay the fuckin- woah, hey, _hey!_ ’ she exclaims, as Ly takes the movie out of the player and puts it back in its box, ‘Goddammit, Ly, I’m serious, I want to watch it!’

‘Too late!’ she chirps, ‘It’s baaack in the shelf’.

Sam glares at her with pursed lips, sitting cross legged. But her friend has grown numb to that hazel stare by now, simply sticking out her tongue and sitting at her desk, the chair giving a faint creak.

‘Let’s do something else’ she repeats, gently spinning the chair from one side to the other with her foot and smiling widely at the brunette.

She gives her the long side squint from under her frizzly mane, but ultimately waves her off and reaches behind her to pick up the bloc, resting it on her lap. ‘Fine, whatever. Don’t say I didn’t try’.

‘Uh-huh. So, any ideas?’

Sam shrugs, leaning forward to better observe one of the drawings. ‘I ‘unno. Wanna go out?’

‘ _Ugh_ ’.

‘What?’

‘It’s just so, _hot_ , outside’ she whines, looking out the window.

‘Yeah, it’s summer? Supossed to be hot- thank fuck. I’d seriously murder something if we also got snow on summer’.

Ly groans, giving the chair a stronger push and staring at the ceiling as it spins. ‘I don’t like summer. I sweat so much, by the end of the day I smell worse than my brother’s socks’.

‘Well, maybe if you didn’t wear a jacket! Look at me, tank top and a pair of shorts and youuu’re good to go…!’ she happily comments, leaving out the fact that she doesn’t have that much of a choice when it comes to style, since it all depends of what her brothers leave behind throughout the years.

A moment drags by, and Ly stops the chair, still looking up. ‘… I don’t like summer clothes, either’.

Sam glances at her. ‘Not that shit again’.

‘It’s the truth, okay? I look super fat in them, so tight and with these- freaking giant arms…’ she restrains herself from grabbing at her pale flesh.

‘You are _fine,_ you idiot’.

Her friend laughs skeptically, shaking her head.

‘Well, _I_ think you look fine!’ Sam insists, sounding slightly offended, ‘Doesn’t that count at all?’

‘You say that because you are my friend’ Ly replies, ‘And it’s about how _I_ feel about it, Sam…!’

‘Okay, hell, then- I don’t know, if it bothers you so damn much, let’s go run or something!’ she says, opening her arms, ‘Come on, we’ll do it together’.

‘And have one of those bastards laughing at me and calling me names the whole way? No way’.

Sam’s head falls back. ‘ _For fuck’s sake, Lyyyyngh_ …’ she chokes out, wringing her hands, and Ly looks to the side, biting her inner cheek.

‘I can’t help it, Sam’.

‘Why the hell do you give any of those _ffffffffucking_ assholes a second thought?’ she asks, genuinely baffled, ‘It don’t mean shit, okay? Nothing of what they say is worth shit!’

‘Because it hurts’ she replies, sucking in her cheeks, ‘Okay? It just does, I can’t help it’.

‘ _Tks_ …’ Sam shakes her head, staring at the red haired girl like a frustrated parent, ‘… want me to go get them? Would you stop giving a shit if I broke their knees?’

Her friend can’t help the giggling, looking at her. ‘No, Sam, don’t’ Ly says, knowing full well just how much she actually means it.

‘I can do it, they won’t know what hit ‘em’ she reassures, and clarifies ‘It’ll be your baseball bat, just so you know’.

Ly cracks up again, but keeps shaking her head. ‘Don’t worry about it, ‘kay? Come on, let’s think of something else…’

The brunette purses her lips, mumbling ‘Well, that’s the funniest I can think of…’ and looks down again at the bloc, pointing a finger at it, ‘Why don’t you tell me about this guy?’

‘What guy?’ Ly wonders, rolling the chair closer to her bed.

‘This one’ she places a finger on one of the doodles, a sketch of what seemed to be a very tall man wearing a long coat, his eyes crudely painted red with a marker.

‘Oh. That’s Marcus Fireheart, son to the king of Nevermore’.

Sam frowns. ‘I thought the king had no children?’

‘He doesn’t know. He’s a bastard son…!’ she whispers, grinning.

‘Ooooh, damn…’ Sam nods, observing the drawing, ‘And why are his eyes red?’

‘Because his mother was a demon, and he’s inherited her powers’.

‘ _Bullshit_ ’ Sam cackles, with a toothy grin, ‘That’s awesome! And- and what are his powers?’

‘Uh, he can control fire and, he can also read people’s thoughts- also he has other hidden, stronger powers, but he has yet to discover them’.

‘Because he’s half-demon, right?’

‘Yup’ Ly nods brightly, leaning back on the chair.

‘Cool’ Sam nods with energy, tapping a finger on the drawing, ‘I don’t like his hair, though. You can’t see his face’.

‘Ah, it’s supposed to look like that. You know. To make him all mysterious’.

‘To me it looks like he needs a haircut’.

‘You’re one to talk…!’ Ly amusedly comments, playfully tugging on one of Sam’s long locks.

‘ _Auh_ \- watch it!’ she cries out, slapping Ly’s hand away, ‘My hair is on _the sides_ of my face, not all over it, okay? There’s a huge difference, friend’.

‘If you say so’ the big girl replies with a roll of her eyes.

‘I do say so, yes, so shut it’ she mutters, turning to the next page, ‘… hey, you know what you should do?’

‘Hm?’

‘You should draw me as a character’ she says, her smile stretched in a thin line.

‘You know’ Ly replies, with a lift of her brow, ‘That isn’t such a bad idea’.

‘Really?’ Sam asks, suddenly surprised.

‘Yeah, you would make a great character, I bet’ she replies, looking her up and down, ‘Like, maybe you could be an assassin…!’

Ly could perfectly imagine that skinny body of hers jumping from roof to roof and sneaking its way into highly guarded castles.

‘What? No!’ Sam grimaces, much to her surprise, ‘No, I want to be, hmm- oh, how about a warr- no! A fighter in the arena! Like in that game you showed me’.

‘Okay, that does fit you much better’ Ly chuckles.

‘Right? Live my life doing what I do best and getting paid for it’.

Her friend frowns. ‘I wouldn’t say that. There are many other things you’re good at, you know?’

‘Bah’ she dismisses her comment with a wave of her hand, ‘Like that’s of any use’.

Ly’s eyes widen. ‘Dude. Not all people our age knows as much about science as you do. Like, really’.

‘Pfrt…’ she keeps her eyes fixed on the bloc, ‘It isn’t even _science_. Just some chemistry and whatever I can get from what books I have, okay? Anybody could do it’.

‘I still think you’re pretty good at it’ she replies, ‘And you also like it, that does a lot fo-‘

‘I’m out of school for good, Ly’ she cuts her short, growing impatient, ‘So what does it matter? Nothing, that’s what’ she continues before her friend can expose her rebuttal, ‘Now drop it, and tell me what, exactly, would my powers be’ and looks up, pushing the subject away with an exaggerated smile.

Ly holds her stare for a second, her mouth curling up ever so little.

‘… the power of science’.

‘Oh, fuck you…!’ she cries, however breaking out into an uncontrollable, loud laughter that her friend doesn’t take long to join.

Sam wipes away the tears, her laughing turned coughing. ‘ _Agh_ , okay, seriously now…’. 

‘ _Ahh_ , I don’t know, maybe… you’d be super strong’.

‘That isn’t a power? I’m already strong’ she points out, flexing her deceivingly bony looking arm.

‘I mean, as in, lifting cars and stuff like that’ she explains, picking a pencil from her nightstand’s drawer.

‘Hm’ the brunette furrows her brow, ‘Maybe. Could I jump really high? Because my legs would be super strong as well, right?’

‘I guess!’ Ly nods, taking the bloc from Sam’s lap and turning to a blank page.

‘Okay then, super strong it is’ she declares, and leans a bit forward, ‘ _Ooh_ , you gonna draw me now?’ she eagerly asks.

Ly gives a long exhale, and starts to draw faint circles in the center of the page. ‘Gonna try…’ she replies, sounding far from confident, ‘So long since I draw anything’.

‘I’m sure it’ll look good’.

‘You’ll have to help me out, though’ the redhead says, outlining with fast lines what will be Sam’s torso, ‘Building the character’.

‘Huh?’

Ly looks up, pointing with her pencil at Sam’s face. ‘For example, would she have your scars, too?’

Sam’s hand instinctively flies north to touch where her friend is pointing, remembering about the scratch that covers the right side of her chin. ‘Uhm… yeah, sure. It’s part of me, I guess?’

‘Allrighty…’ she adds more to the drawing, and talks without taking her eyes off the page, ‘How did you get them?’

‘Well, _duh_ , of course I’d get them in the arena. One for each rival that has tasted the sole of my leather sandals…!’

‘No, Sam, I mean for real’ her eyes shift up and then quickly back down, noticing the uncomfortable silence her friend has fallen into, ‘How did you get them? You never really talk about it…’

Ly can hear from her seat the sheets shifting under her frail weight, but procures to keep looking at the paper, not entirely as focused as she should be in the drawing. Just when she thinks she’s pushed too far, Sam talks.

‘I just fell’ she said in a monotonous tone, ‘Tripped and fell on my chin, cracked it open’ then gradually lightens up the mood again, ‘I really prefer to think it was a sword, and that I made the other person swallow it’.

‘You cracked your chin open?’

‘It happens, okay? Hurt like a bitch’ she snaps, and leans over her bloc again, ‘Are you d- holy shit, I don’t have _those tits!_ ’

Ly ignores that observation and pokes Sam’s arm with her pencil, ‘What about that one, above your elbow? Or the one on your shoulder? Or-‘

Sam interrupts her with a long and exhausted groan. ‘I don’t knoooow…? Probably in school’ she shrugs, ‘I don’t really keep a record of my every scratch, Ly’.

‘Okay, okay, sorry… I’m just curious, you know’ she mumbles, erasing and redrawing Sam’s long hair, ‘I mean, you know every little thing about me, Sam’.

‘Yeah, because you tell me’.

‘Isn’t that what friends do? They talk to each other’.

Sam grunts.

‘Exactly my point. I dunno, it’s like… do you trust me, Sam?’

‘ _What?_ ’ she asks, definitely at the edge of her patience now.

‘Do you trust me? You never talk to me about, your family, or why you dropped class- I haven’t even been to your house not once’ she speaks softly, knowing it’s way too late to stop and having wondered for way too long about it to really want to anyway.

The brunette is gawping at her again, resting her head on one hand that grips at her hair, and Ly has a difficult time returning the stare, but she manages, somehow. Sam’s mouth closes and she licks her lips, looking everywhere but at her friend as she seemingly contemplates her answer. And Ly expects her to snap. Honestly does. She expects her to call her something ugly, something she doesn’t mean but that she’ll never really properly apologize for, and storm out of her house through the window, so not to be seen by Ly’s mother. Vanish for a day or two and then come back acting like nothing’s happened. What she doesn’t expect is for her to say the following words.

‘Of course I fucking trust you…’ she almost whispers, raising a hand as if to say _how can you even doubt that_ , but still avoiding her eyes.

Ly takes a deep breath, partially relieved, and decides to keep prying before she misses the golden chance. ‘Then tell me. Tell me about yourself, about your family…’

‘Why? Why are you so freaking interested?’ Sam inquires, sharpening her tone again.

‘Because it’s part of who you are, silly’ she replies, instantly feeling rather cheesy for it.

Sam snorts, shaking her head. ‘Jesus fuck…’

There’s at least half a minute of silence before she exhales a ragged sigh, still looking down at her lap.

‘Well, what do you want to know? Hm?’ she asks drily, ‘You’re so curious about it, then go ahead, make your questions’.

Ly’s heart skips a beat, and she unconsciously braces herself onto the chair’s armrests. She can’t believe this is actually happening. That Sam is actually collaborating, and not changing the subject or getting pissed off out of nowhere. She swallows to sooth her throat.

‘I-I… uhm, I don’t know’ she stammers, trying to see Sam’s face behind the curtain that forms her falling mane, ‘Ah… do you- do you have any sibling?’

‘Nine. All boys’ she cuttingly replies.

‘Holy fu… that’s a lot of brothers’ Ly laughs, but Sam doesn’t look up from her lap, entertained with one of the frayed threads poking from her pants, ‘Uhm… they all live in your house?’

‘… mostly’.

‘O-kaaay… and, your house? What’s it like?’

Sam tugs on the thread, twisting it. ‘I dunno. Old, big. Lotta land around it’.

‘Uh-huh. It, sounds pretty’.

Ly’s met with silence again and she looks down at her drawing, suddenly not so enthusiastic about this. She feels that Sam is way out of her comfort zone, by miles, and hates to think that she’s forcing it on her.

One last question though. Just one.

She tries so hard, every day, to understand this savage girl, this little witch with needles in her tongue and flames in her eyes. She gives it her best all the time. Feels like she has the rights to at least make one more question before dropping the subject altogether until the day her friend feels like opening up by herself.

‘You… you’re always talking about your father’s job, and how you’re going to take over. But you never really talk about your mother’ she tilts her head, wondering if that was a twitch just now, ‘… does she live with you? Is she…?’

‘She left’ Sam cuts in, lifting her gaze for the first time, looking indifferent, ‘I woke up one day and she was gone’ she purses her lips, lifting her shoulders, ‘Just like that. No one really told me why, so I never asked’.

‘I- I am sorry’ Ly mumbles.

‘Don’t be. It’s fine’ Sam simpers, and then asks, ‘Is that all you wanted to know?’

Ly bites her lower lip and nods, even though there’s a lot more she wants to hear. Sam’s eyes are glazed and look dead tired, and that’s happened in merely a minute of this conversation. Better let it rest.

‘ _Psch_. Really? I don’t get what was the big deal, then…’ she jeers at her, grabbing one of her stuffed animals, a green giraffe, and distractedly pulling on its fluffy limbs.

Ly manages a lop-sided smile, but says nothing in return, her frown deepening as she gives the sketch the last touches. An uncomfortable silence follows for the next minute or so, with both girls purposely avoiding to look at each other by acting concentrated on their respective activities.

Then Ly blows away what’s left of the eraser, polishes up some lines, and holds the block out to Sam.

‘There ‘ya go’ she smiles, ‘I will probably repeat it later, but…’

The other girl throws the giraffe to the side and takes the bloc before she can finish her sentence, staring at the drawing with wonder. She grins, and her tongue pokes out between her teeth.

‘Oh, wo-ho-how… I look so _badass_ ’.

Ly turns a little redder, both hands tucked between her legs. ‘Well, I’m glad you like it’.

‘You kidding? I _love_ it’ she heartfeltly replies, and Ly blushes a little more.

She observes her friend’s cheerful expression, an extremely rare emotion in her that Ly understands it’s practically a privilege to witness, and suddenly she feels even worse for putting her through that last questionnaire just to satisfy her curiosity. She’s pretty sure Sam would rather drop the subject already and not mention it again, of course, but the words just come out of her mouth on their own.

‘Hey, Sam?’ she asks, and the brunette glues her eyes off the drawing bloc to look at her, her mouth slightly open still. When she sees Ly’s sorrowful expression, however, whatever joy she feels fades away from her face, her brows knitting in anticipation of what else the big girl could possibly ask from her.

‘You know I’m here for you, right?’ she quietly breathes, catching Sam off guard once again, ‘Like… whether you want to talk with me or not, just know that. I am here for you… for whatever that’s worth’ she adds, briefly looking to the side.

She sees her jaw moving, like it always does when she’s nervous, or tense, or just lost in deep thought, and then her body leaning forward, drawing bloc still leaning on her lap. And Ly wonders what exactly is she doing, or what she plans to do, those intense hazel circles taking over her sight of vision when suddenly Sam stretches out her arm in one swift motion and she can’t see anything anymore.

‘Hey! What are you doing?’ Ly cries, squinting her eyes to try and see through the clouds that now surround her. She can hear Sam cackling and she can see her shape moving and standing up on the bed, jumping up and down, ‘Come on, Sam, this isn’t funny! Give them back’ she whines, stretching out her arm.

‘Nope’ Sam replies, her voice strangely hoarse, jumping off the bed and bouncing to the other side of the room, ‘This is what you get for giving me a tooth-ache’.

‘Sam, goddammit!’ Ly yells again, turning her chair around.

She listens closely, awaiting another of her mad cackles to come from the corner of the room, but instead there’s what she discerns as a sniffle, and a restrained cough, and a wave of anguish grips at her chest when she understands why Sam has taken away her glasses for no apparent reason.

She keeps up the game, either way. She plays dumb, and keeps begging her to give her glasses back, sounding annoyed and waiting enough time for her friend to finally laugh out loud with greater conviction, approach her chair from behind and briskly put her glasses back on, giving the back of her seat a light push afterwards.

‘Come on, cheese-ball, let’s go out’ she urges Ly, still making an obvious effort to keep her eyes hidden behind her hair, ‘I really need a cigar’.

‘Fiiiine… but let’s go sit under a tree or something, please’ she replies, hoping her inner concern doesn’t show through, and holds onto the desk to stop the chair from spinning and stand up, grabbing her jacket.

Sam fleetingly mocks at her request, eventually agreeing to go to the park for that evening, either way, and lets Ly check outside her room first before they sneak out.

On the way to the park Sam stays a few steps ahead of her, hands in pockets, her cigar leaving behind a trail of smoke.

And even though Ly can’t help but wonder exactly what buttons she pushed back in her room, and when exactly she should have stopped, the remorseful teen finds comfort in thinking about the party she and the others are preparing for Sam’s birthday, and tells herself that she’ll make sure to make up for whatever wounds she’s reopened by getting her the best, most meaningful gift she can think of, and give her that way real motives for a tooth-ache.   

Yeah, she thought, rushing to catch up with Sam, and asking her for another cigar.

Things would be allright.


End file.
